Stay on target

New showrunner, new Doctor, new companions, new equipment: Rumor has it the BBC has sprung for high-end camera kit to give Doctor Who a more “cinematic” look.

As reported by media-and-television magazine Broadcast, season 11 is currently being shot with Cooke and Angenieux anamorphic lenses.

Allow me to explain: There are two classes of lens typically used in production—spherical and anamorphic. Shooting with a spherical lens in widescreen format creates black frame lines above and below the picture.

Shooting with an anamorphic lens, meanwhile, stretches the image vertically to cover the entire frame, resulting in a higher quality but distorted image, which is reversed upon projection to create a wider aspect on-screen ratio.

“The BBC have made a monumental leap here to enhance the look of Doctor Who and I’m sure the fans will not be disappointed with the distinctly cinematic results that this lens and camera combo will afford them,” Films at 59 hire client manager David Wride told Broadcast.

Wride declined to comment to Geek, but Angenieux confirmed that it recently delivered two Optimo anamorphic lenses (the 30-72 T.4 wide-angle compact zoom and 56-152 T.4 standard compact zoom) through its distributor to Films at 59, for use on Doctor Who.

BBC and Arri also declined to comment, while Cooke did not immediately respond to Geek’s request.